Monday 26 March 2012

Edible glitter

I don't know about you but I am looking forward to moving on from the spring cleaning.  Although I have enjoyed cleaning the house from top to bottom I am ready to start enjoying other spring pleasures.  I thought I would start the week with a post wholly unrelated to spring cleaning before my final two spring cleaning posts
I recently found a recipe in a book entitled Queen of Crafts by Jazz Domino Holly for edible glitter.  My four year old insisted we try it immediately.  A quick mention about this book I would recommend it if you are interested in taking up a craft but are not sure what to try as is gives an overview and some lovely modern projects in everything from sewing and knitting to cake making to kitchen gardening  and making your own cosmetics.

Back to the glitter.



you will need:
Gum Arabic* 2tbsp (this was all of the 12g tub I bought online so if you want to do more than one batch be warned)
Water 2tbsp
Food Colouring.  

*I struggle to find Gum Arabic, if you don't live near a specialist cake shop I bought it online here. Unfortunately postage was more than the Gum Arabic itself - not very thrifty I know but I had a desperate 4year old on my hands.  If anyone knows of a supplier that doesn't charge postage PLEASE let me know.

The Gum Arabic - which is made from tree resin and used to create glazes and glitter on cakes and also in candle making - came in powder formed but formed a sticky resinous substance when the water was added.  Melt in a bain marie - that is bowl placed over a pan of simmering water stir until the gum is completely dissolved.  Add the food colouring or omit this is you want silver sparkles.

In the book the author recommends using a clean pastry brush to paint the mixture onto a glass bowl, this is what I did however, it didn't work brilliantly.  I would recommend using a silicon pastry brush (not a traditional bristled one) to paint the mixture thickly onto a glass plate.

Leave at room temperature to dry for 12 hours.  The mixture will form a film over the plate which you scrape off with a sharp knife.  Now put the flakes in a bowel and crush them with the end of a rolling pin to create you sparkles.  Keep in an airtight container should last months!

This recipe was a lot of fun but also quite a lot of work for not a massive amount of glitter.  I would love to know how you get on if you try it.

Staying in the kitchen I will be posting about thrifty cleaning tips for your kitchen later this week, I was researching this topic all weekend and have some good tricks to share with you.  I hope to get this post up on Wednesday so do check back.

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